Brothers Until Forever
by ShatteredElement
Summary: When Zoro and Luffy turn up dead, the crew has differing reactions and different memories about the duo. But how did they die? And how far will the remaining Straw Hat's go to avenge them?
1. Chapter 1

Luffy and Zoro were always the closest among any of the crew. They shared so many experiences; hardships, good times, and boring times, and they also just understood each other. They were two men both striving to achieve goals that many would call impossible. They were truly brothers.

Their untimely endings were two of the most shocking, crushing things that ever happened to the crew of the Thousand Sunny, and even now all of us look back on it with moist eyes at the least. All of us remember different things about them, but we all agree on one thing: they were two of the most wonderful, strong, courageous people we've ever met.

I remember Luffy sitting on the figurehead of the ship every morning, looking out at the sun and occasionally saying to the sea, "Right ahead, see? Right there's where I'm going to make history." Every day, he was one step closer to his dream. He knew it every day.

He would also whine constantly to Sanji about being hungry and wanting meat, to which Sanji would either prepare a meal, tell him to go eat something else, or kick him out of the kitchen. Most often Luffy would return to the deck disappointed.

During fights, Luffy would push himself harder than the rest of us felt comfortable watching. He never disgraced an opponent by showing mercy, and he was exceedingly determined. He was fast, strong, but perhaps not very cunning or shrewd. He did know how to utilize his skills to his full advantage though. In many ways, Luffy was very similar to his first mate.

What really is there to say about Zoro? He was definitely his own person, stiff and stubborn, but with much common sense and a hidden compassion for the whole crew that shocked us even after we had sailed with him for years. He was lazy, troublesome, and yet always somehow easy to enjoy being around. Even if he got on your nerves, when you stopped and thought about it, none of us on the Sunny could say we disliked Zoro even one bit. Sanji would always try to deny it, but he had a great respect and rivalry with the swordsman and didn't ever resent him at all.

He always had a steely glint in his eye before a battle that showed you his dedication to himself and his dream, Kuina and his promise, and his nakama and his life. He trained constantly, always saying he was too weak, reaching for that next level even if there wasn't one there. Until the very end he was like this.

The day we found them dead was a day that will forever be burned into my memory. Every tiny detail, like what I was wearing or what Sanji cooked that morning will be as clear to me as what happened only a few seconds ago until I take my turn to die.

It was Robin that found them, hanging on to life by only a thread, and Robin who rushed them back to the ship for Chopper to examine. I was sitting with my feet dangling over the rails of the port side of the Thousand Sunny that day, and I remember watching Robin race towards us, Luffy and Zoro's still forms being carried along the ground by masses of tiny hands.

The minute they reached the ship, Chopper and Robin took them to the infirmary, and a few minutes later Robin returned to the deck and told us where she had found them. Chopper came out early the following morning and told us, tears rolling down his cheeks, that both of them were gone. Poor Chopper. At the very, very least, saving one of them would have been better for him than having them both die. But nothing could be done. He knew that neither of them could have been saved.

-Nami


	2. Chapter 2

When I joined the Straw Hat Crew, the two people who I felt I could relate to easiest was their captain, Luffy, who inspired me to pursue my dreams in life, and the first mate Zoro, the solemn, skillful swordsman who never said much, but was always a rock of common sense. Watching both of them was so inspiring, and though I like the whole crew very much, those two were what convinced me that joining the Straw Hat Crew was the right thing for me to do.

I just wish they were still here.

Nothing has been the same since they both died; everybody just skulks around now, caught up in their own thoughts, not worrying about the slowly deteriorating shape we are in. We are a pirate crew without a captain or first mate, and none of us want to step up and take either position. It seems too strange to try and replace either Luffy or Zoro, so none of us even try.

I remember the day I found them. They had gone off to locate someone on the island (they wouldn't tell us who) that they needed to talk to. None of us thought much of it; after all, two of the eleven Supernovas could take care of themselves. It wasn't until halfway through the next day that I began to worry, and even then I was the only one concerned. Everyone else thought they had just gotten lost, as Luffy's sense of direction wasn't very good and on a scale of one-to-ten, Zoro had a sense of direction at about negative twenty.

I went off on my own to look for them, under the pretense of going into town to look for a book. The others didn't seem worried, but I had a feeling that something was wrong; very, very wrong. I was right.

I stumbled upon them deep in the woods, covered in hideous gashes that were obviously from a weapon that was not commonly used. There was also a thin trail of blood leading off from their bodies in the opposite direction I had come from. It appeared as though Luffy, the slightly less injured of the two, had tried to carry Zoro towards the Sunny but collapsed halfway through the woods. Both were still alive, but unconscious.

I rushed them back to the Sunny, my mind hardly functioning. It was such an intense shock to me that two of the strongest people I had ever met were dying like this, without anyone nearby to help them and without anyone even knowing what had happened. What of their dreams? What about Luffy dream of becoming the Pirate King and Zoro's of becoming the world's greatest swordsman? Would they never reach those goals now because we hadn't been cautious enough? Was it our fault that our captain and first mate were covered in wounds and bleeding to death? Could we have stopped this from ever happening? Questions raced through my mind, and the trip back to the Sunny seemed to take three times as long as the trip to where I had found them.

Everyone's faces had been filled with shock and disbelief when they saw me racing along, small hands carrying Luffy and Zoro behind me, not wanting to accept what their eyes presented to them, and even Chopper seemed to be in a daze as he hustled us into the infirmary, where I helped put them on beds and then left.

That night was the longest night I have ever been through. I didn't even bother going to bed; I knew I wouldn't sleep, so I sat out on the deck, watching the flag fluttering in the wind high above the ship, my eyes lingering on the straw hat that rested on top of the skull. I had always found the flag comical, if rather ironic: the skull and crossbones was a symbol of death and terror, but the straw hat on it was Luffy's mark, the mark of a man who was fun loving and friendly, who never attacked without purpose and avoided killing wherever he could.

As I sat there, I remembered a poem I had read a long time ago, and began to whisper it out loud to myself, its words my only refuge from the darkness and pain that was lingering on the edges of my vision, waiting to attack.

_The world, good and evil_

_Clear-cut, objective_

_Everything one or the other._

_What is good will be saved,_

_Preserved,_

_It will endure throughout time without age._

_What is evil will be struck down_

_The night that surrounds it will shatter_

_The horrors will fall,_

_Injustice is eradicated._

_If only we lived in a world such as this._

I had already given into despair. And it welcomed me, enveloped me in its arms.

**~Robin**


End file.
